Listen to Tom, not the Army’s sabre-rattlers
His optimism inspires us all as the nation fights the unseen enemy of Covid-19.
But the veteran of jungle war in Burma during World War Two has another message, one that’s been given very little publicity.
He told Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: “I hope we don’t have any more wars. They are fruitless and nothing comes out of them in the end.”
These are not the words of a pacifist, or a draft-dodger. They are the unprompted verdict of a fighting man who has been there, done it, seen its horrors and lived to tell the tale.
We should heed what he says, instead of listening to armchair military pundits and old sweats bleating in the House of Lords.
I wonder what Sir Tom makes of the MoD’s latest sabre-rattling. More than 450 crack troops last week parachuted into Ukraine, just 100 miles from the border with Russia, in a show of strength against Vladimir Putin’s separatists.
The most senior officer on the ground – unnamed – declared: “We are willing and ready to deploy. We are standing by our allies and partners and the sovereignty and security of the Black Sea region.”
Er, hang on a minute. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, only an Enhanced Opportunities Partner, like Jordan and Georgia. We are not compelled to go to war if she is under threat.
What is the Army babbling on about with casual notions like “the sovereignty and security of the Black Sea?”
Will we declare war on Russia if the Moscow-backed separatists get any closer to Ukraine’s capital, Kiev? Britain is undergoing its most comprehensive review of defence and foreign policy for a generation.
The brass hats demand more money, as they always do.
They don’t fight the wars. Lads from Castleford, Merseyside, South London, the Black Country and all the other deprived areas do. Men like Capt Tom, from Keighley.
And they deserve a better rationale for putting their lives on the line than boastful, woolly- minded pledges to deploy against Russia.
Brass hats don’t fight the wars - lads from deprived areas do that